I am prepared to begin affiliate marketing program as a merchant and need some input.

[Wheels]

Suggestions please.

I currently have 3 nutritional supplement products that our company has been selling over the last 3 years. I want to increase sales by starting an affiliate program.

I was considering Share A Sale. Should others be considered?

Anyone have any referrals for copywriters who are excellent at nutritional supplements and can maximize conversions?

I have the website design but at the same time I need banners that affiliates can use that will help covert to click throughs, along with other tools for affiliates. Suggestions Please.

What commissions and/or other factors motivate affiliates to want to promote one's products?

Our products work well and are guaranteed.

I want affiliates to have the best possible tools to obtain sales.

Any other advice would be appreciated. Thank you.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Welcome to 5 Star Wheels.

Shareasale is the best low cost network and I highly recommend it.

What commissions and/or other factors motivate affiliates to want to promote one's products?

Commission varies based on market, so you need to research what other companies in your vertical are paying out and then pay a little more than average if you can. Affiliates also look for long cookies - 90 days or more is good.

For more tips about what affiliates want and how to build a successful program read the stickies here in the merchant/affiliate manager forum.

Linda

 

[Wheels]

Where would one find what conversion rates were for similar products such as nutritional supplements?

 

[Linda Buquet]

I suggested researching commission rates. Is that what you mean, or did you really mean conversion rates?

 

[Wheels]

In my original post I was referring to commission rates, and then as I read other sticky posts I also had an inquiry regarding conversion rates once traffic was sent to a website.

Great commissions don't help unless the website converts traffic. Finding truthful statistics on website conversion rates has been difficult but would seem highly relevant in the category of nutritional supplements.


I tried covering the most relevant items that would seem most important to an affiliate.

Website that converts due to design and great copy.
Product that works and is credible.
Product Guarantee
Commission structure.

Willingness on the part of me, the merchant, to supply all the tools.

Supplying all of the above I am really not expecting most traffic from affiliates to come from bidding on the Trademarks as the main way of driving traffic.

 

[Ron Bechdolt]

Shareasale is a great network and I highly recommend it.

Often I recommend to merchants that they look for networks where there are already merchants with the same type of products. The reason behind this is that there are already affiliates there who are marketing those types of products. In this case, nearly all networks sell nutritional products so I guess that's a mute point. However, SAS has a great reputation and a great staff to support your program.

Regarding banner, you can look at what your competitors are doing and try something similar (but not copied).

 

[MyNewCompany]

20DollarBanners.com is great for banners, buttons, etc. I recently used them and they are very talented.

 

[Wheels]

Thank you everyone! Please keep the suggestions coming.........

 

[bbakeryamaha]

Another vote for Shareasale

I am a merchant and I have also been happy w/ Shareasale so far.

Banners - Offer all of the standard web banner sizes (728x90, 160x600, 250x250, 160x125, 728x90, etc.).

Commissions - Troll affiliate directories and see what the commissions are for similar products.

Good luck,
Ben
Yamaha Home AV & Electronics

 

[Smaxor68]

I concur with the best statement in here. Look for networks that support your product type. Are you a retail seller? If so look towards CJ, Share-A-Sale and Linkshare. If you're more in the CPA space look to Azoogle, Ads4Dough and Copeac. We turn a lot of advertisers back to a CJ or SAS just because we know that certain products are not going to perform well on a CPA network. Free Trial Nutra's kill but a PPS with a % rev is probably going to never get any traction.